Guwahati Airport: CISF suspended a constable for strip-searching an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair 

A woman constable with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has been suspended for allegedly strip-searching a wheelchair-bound 80-year-old woman with a hip implant at the Guwahati Airport on Thursday.

The woman was accompanied by her granddaughter on her flight to Delhi. Following the incident, the woman’s daughter took to social media to express her displeasure with the situation. “The security and dignity of the needy pax are inextricably linked. The CISF has already begun an investigation into the unfortunate incident at the Guwahati airport. The personnel in question has been placed on leave. The passenger has been spoken to by DIG CISF,” the CISF tweeted late Thursday night.

“My 80-year-old disabled mom was made to strip at the CISF security check at Guwahati airport,” the woman’s daughter, Dolly Kikon, an anthropologist from Nagaland, tweeted after the incident. Security personnel forced her to undress in order to obtain ‘proof’ of her titanium hip implant.” “It is disgusting!” she wrote in another tweet. My 80-year-old disabled mother was forced to remove her underwear and strip down to her underwear. Why? Why?” “Is that how we treat seniors?” Kikon asked, tagging the CISF, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and the Guwahati Airport authorities.

According to CISF sources, checking prosthetics and implants after metal detectors give a signal is standard procedure. “What we’re looking into is whether the CISF officer in question performed her duties with the respect and sensitivity that the passenger deserved. “We’re looking into whether there was any harassment,” a senior CISF official said.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had also expressed interest in the incident, tweeting that he would investigate it. Last year, actor and dancer Sudha Chandran took to social media to express her dissatisfaction with the CISF for forcing her to take off her prosthetics.

According to sources, the current frisking guidelines were established following the Daallo Airlines bombing in Somalia in 2016. The bomb, which exploded 20 minutes after take-off, was allegedly carried by a wheelchair-bound person.

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